As Invisible as the Wind
by cayt-lynne
Summary: Cassie grows up.


**As Invisible as the Wind**

**Summary – **

**Castiel takes over taking care of the angel part of Sam and Jessica's daughter.**

**Notes – **

**Part 3 of The Littlest Winchester**

Sam, Jessica and Castiel all knew that Cassie had wings. Castiel had taken care of them when she was a baby and Sam and Jess had caught him at it. But once she turned six months old, they had disappeared. Cas hadn't said anything, but Sam and Jessica wondered if the part of his grace that lived in their daughter was diminishing. As she had grown up, they had almost forgotten about it. They caught the occasional flash of light in her sparkling eyes, but nothing more…obvious manifested itself. So they relaxed. Until Cassie started hunting.

While she was hunting with Dean, there were no problems. She never got hurt (miraculously) and, though she was only seventeen when she started, she became the best hunter the boys had ever seen. Even better than themselves. Sam and Jessica started to relax a bit. That is, until Dean and Cassie returned from a hunt and brought something concerning to their attention.

"Hey, Sam. Jess."

Both looked up from the books they were reading, smiling. Jess stood up and threw her arms around Dean's neck in a tight hug while Sam got up more slowly, waiting his turn. Once they had both hugged him, they looked around for Castielle, but couldn't find her. They looked at Dean with questioning, fearful gazes.

"Where's Cassie?" Jess asked hesitantly.

"What? Oh, no, she's fine. She wanted a shower." Both of them visibly relaxed. Deansmiled at their over protectiveness…that he was about to kick into overdrive. "But there is something I wanted to talk to you guys about."

They waited for him to start. He shifted uncomfortably.

"Alright, so after a hunt, we got back to the motel room to get cleaned up. Got ready for bed, right? "

"Get to the point, Dean," Sam interjected.

"Well, Cassie wears a tank to bed. And I saw…on her back…there are two _things_ on her shoulder blades. Do you guys have any idea what's going on there?" He saw the look that they shared. "Wait a minute, you do know what's going on."

"Sam," said Jess, her voice urgent.

"I know. We'll call him, okay?"

"Hold up. What's going on? Is there something wrong with Cassie?"

They just stared at him.

"Come on! Is something wrong with her? What can I do?"

Jess took a deep breath. "There's nothing…wrong with her, but…"

"But?"

"Remember when Cas put some of his grace in Castielle? When she was still in Jess?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well…for the first six months, she had wings."

"Wings."

"Yeah, wings."

"Okay…"

"They were tiny little wings. She didn't fly or anything and we only saw them once. They only came out around Cas. But they disappeared after she turned six months old."

"And why didn't anyone tell me?"

"We weren't sure how to deal with it ourselves."

"Okay so…" Dean paced a little bit. "So, her wings…are coming back?"

"Maybe." Sam and Jess glanced at each other. "We have to talk to Cas."

"Alright, let's call him."

In her room, Cassie twisted and turned in front of her mirror, trying to get a good look at her back. She reached for the liquor that she kept hidden in the fake bottom of her desk drawer. Maybe she was only eighteen (well, her birthday was tomorrow) but that hadn't ever stopped her before. She took a swig and then replaced it on the shelf. She twisted around the other way, glimpsing the raised marks on her back. They were sore. What was most disturbing though, was that they were black. It looked like someone had taken a black market and drawn them on her. What were they? She just hoped Dean hadn't seen them…

The sound of rustling wings brought Cassie from her thoughts. She whipped around and saw a man standing in the middle of her room. He had dark brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. In fact, they looked a lot like Cassie's. He looked serious, which was accentuated by the suit and trench coat that he wore. He looked almost like a tax accountant.

"Who are you?" Cassie demanded, producing a blade from seemingly out of nowhere. The man simply looked at her.

"I am Castiel. I am an Angel of the Lord."

"Cas-Castiel? My name is Cassie…"

"Your parents named you after me."

"Why haven't I ever met you before, then?"

"They asked me to keep out of sight while I watched over you. They didn't want you drawn in to the hunter's life."

"Why are you here now?"

"Dean says you have marks on your back. May I see?"

Cassie groaned. So he had seen, afterall.

"Look, I don't know where they came from, okay?"

"They came from me."

Suddenly Castiel was behind her, running a single finger along one of the ridges. Cassie felt it, to her core. They were so sensitive. She jerked away from Castiel, looking at him with wide eyes. He flushed and looked down.

"I apologize. I did not think they would be as sensitive as mine."

"As…yours?"

Castiel regarded her for a moment before closing his eyes. Two huge, black wings appeared behind him. Cassie could remember reading in Dean's journal about an angel that's wings just looked like large black shadows behind him. This was not the case with Castiel. His wings were very there, wih shiny black feathers and a wingspan so large, he had to fold his wings in a bit to avoid hitting her bedroom walls.

Cassie gasped and Castiel folded them neatly behind his back. He looked at her seriously.

"You can see them."

She nodded.

"Not many humans can." He looked at the ground. "Cassie, no human has ever seen my wings before. They are as invisible as the wind usually. But you…"

She stared at him with her mouth slightly open. Castiel stared at her, too. Suddenly he was striding towards her, standing so close that she could feel his breath on her face. She tried to take a step back, but found herself drawn towards the angel as he stared down at her.

"Cassie, before you were born, I visited your mother. Some of my grace was taken from me and given to you."

Cassie was in shock for a second, but really, she had seen stranger things happen. She just wanted to be sure. "Prove it."

Castiel looked at her, unsure. "Are you sure you want me to?"

"Yes," she whispered.

Castiel raised one hand and touched her forehead with two fingers. There was a powerful flash of blue light and then a searing pain that blazed across her shoulder blades. Cassie collapsed and felt Castiel's arms go around her. The pain faded almost as quickly as it appeared. But something was different. There was a slight weight on her back. And there were new muscles moving under her skin. When Castiel set her back on her feet, she turned to the mirror and gasped. There was blue light glowing in her eyes and two enormous black wings with silver tips hovering behind her. She flexed them experimentally and wobbled when they almost picked her up off the ground. She turned to face Castiel.

"What am I supposed to do with these?"

Over the next few months, Castiel taught Cassie everything about flying and using her grace. He was surprised to discover her grace had been growing inside of her, so that she was now almost as powerful as Castiel. And her wings were strong and beautiful. Castiel would often find himself staring at her, for different reasons that were strange to him. Her parents had been fairly accepting of her wings, as had Dean, though there was the initial concern about functioning in society. That had been easily resolved when Castiel taught her how to retract her wings. She rarely did, unless she was on a hunt, preferring to flit around the bunker and go flying at night with Castiel. She was happier than ever.


End file.
